Originally Posted by
OscartheGrouch
TS,
It may seem like conjecture to you, but if I am guessing correctly it has been financially/emotionally harmful to those who are currently on furlough. To them it is a reality when someone "exercising their contractual rights" picks up open time while they are on the street. Please don't tell me you are one of those that thinks a furlough is all part of career development and builds character and all that.
We have a few who think that way at SWA but they will always be overruled.
Our numbers indicate we are overmanned by 250+ but management and every pilot that I have talked to recently would do what ever is necessary to keep all 250 on property until things turn around. I like to prefer to the current overmanning situation as preloaded.
The Oscar
As to furlough being a part of the character building process... uh.. no. It sucks. My point about conjecture is that of whether or not guys picking up time adds to the continuation of the furloughs. But a furlough hurts everybody, not just those on furlough. I sat sideways for almost 6 years when we had guys furloughed at DAL back in the early 90s. I know.. I can hear you... "but at least you were still flying". My point is that BECAUSE of the economic times and the fact that I was unable to bid up from there, I lost lots of potential income too. I'm not asking that anybody shed any tears, I'm just saying that the knife cuts pretty deep, and not just downward. But I digress... As I said earlier, I had no clue as to how things work at CAL, and I appreciate the lesson. And as I said... this is an emotionally charged issue.. There is no empiracle evidence that guys picking up time keeps furloughs on the street. Think about it for a minute. If you were management.. would you;
A) Keep just enough guys on the roster so that you can cover the schedule... within the boundaries of the contract? Think economy before you answer this one...
B) Keep guys furloughed and torpedo your revenue stream just to spite an employee group?
If guys don't pick up time and they start cancelling flights you might have a point. But I will still fall back on the feeling that if you tell guys what/when they can start picking up flying, you are starting down a slippery slope. What is next? I guess you can still sell back vacation at CAL. We got rid of that a long time ago at DAL. That drove me crazy when I would see guys selling back their vacation when there was no upward movement. But in retrospect, it would have been wrong to have told them they couldn't do it becaause it was a part of their contract to do so.
I'll bow out of this discussion, because as I said, I don't have a horse in this race either, but unless something is in your contract, or has been agreed to by ALL of the players involved, tread carefully....
However it works out, I wish you all the best.